It’s taken a lot of prodding, threats and whispered innuendo, but T-Mobile has admitted to losing details for 17 million of its customers.
The German mobile phone company, which is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, is now red-faced after details of the data loss were published by the German mag Der Spiegel (not even the admission was voluntary really). The magazine reported that some of the lost data was now being sold on the black market, prompting T-Mobile to come forward and hold up its hands (and hold down its head) in guilt after 2 years of silence. It has now admitted that the data was on a CD that went missing in early 2006. They have no knowledge as to its whereabouts. Ahh, doesn’t that give their customers a warm fuzzy feeling?
It contained customers’ name, date of birth, address and mobile phone number, and some email addresses for millions of customers. All the info an enterprising scam artist/identity stealer/crook/assorted bad person needs to do a lot of damage and disrupt a lot of people’s lives.
T-Mobile insists, however, that no banking details were on the disc. Well, of course they’ll say that; let’s hope its true. Credit card/bank account numbers? That would spell a lot of trouble for T-Mobile.
It also said in a statement that it had reported the data loss to the proper state authorities as soon as it found out that the disc had gone missing. It then monitored Internet forums and sites where such stolen information is offered for sale but found no evidence that the missing data was available for purchase. It sounds like they tried to do the right thing, but people who do this are a tricky lot, generally speaking. It isn’t like they’ll come out and announce “Hey I grabbed this stuff from T-Mobile, come and get it!” on a public forum.
But Der Spiegel article has now pulled the covers off this, and, more worryingly, says that the data missing includes details for “business leaders, religious representatives, government ministers and politicians”, according to online reports.
T-Mobile is still insisting that there is no evidence that the stolen data has been used to con its customers, but is offering worried customers the opportunity to change their mobile phone number for free, which is a start, at least.
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